Paul Pasquarosa's Misprinted Lottery Ticket Leaves Him Without The Jackpot

Paul Pasquarosa woke up the day before his birthday feeling lucky. Taking a chance, he went to the store, bought a scratch off lottery ticket and appeared to win $1 million. Unfortunately for him, the ticket was a misprint and he received nothing.

Pasquarosa is an unemployed father of two from Boston. He was hoping for just a little a bit of luck and little bit of money. He bought a $10 Cashword scratch-off lottery ticket and thought he hit the jackpot.

I'm looking at it, Pasquarosa said, reported WBZ. I have three red words. It says three red words wins a million dollars. I called my son and told him things were going to be okay.

On the lottery ticket, three red words means the person who bought the ticket receives a million dollars. However, upon inspection, the ticket appeared to be defective. There was a problem with the printing and the ticket became invalid, reported Time Magazine.

At first glance I believe this gentleman won a million, but on a closer inspection I saw there was an offset in the printing, said George Miller, Pasquarosa's lawyer. Mr. Pasquarosa was not just disappointed, but visibly ill.

Although misprinted lottery tickets are quite infrequent, there are some in circulation. Out of the 20 million tickets that the Massachusetts state lottery prints, there are approximately 2,200 believed to be defective. Lottery officials have tried to prevent the defective tickets from being distributed, but it is difficult.

Is this a situation where there are a lot of defects being put out by the lottery?, Miller said, reported WBZ. If there is, should they be taking precautions to make sure they're not giving hope to individuals being solicited by the lottery?

For Pasquarosa, it does not appear he will be getting the million dollars. He might not even get his money back. However, Pasquarosa said there is a lesson to be learned from this incident; always check the ticket before leaving the store. However, he believes that someone dos need to take responsibility for the defective tickets, reported the Lottery Post.

Someone should be liable, Pasquarosa said. They didn't do their job.

While Pasquarosa may not have a happy ending, the Massachusetts Lottery is suggesting that anyone with a misprinted should immediately contact the claims department of their organization.